THE PARTY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.

Party divisions, whether on the whole operating for good or evil, are things inseparable from free government. This is

a truth which, I believe, admits little dispute, having been established by the uniform experience of all ages. The part a good citizen ought to take in these divisions has been a matter of much deeper controversy. But God forbid that any controversy relating to our essential morals should admit of no decision. It appears to me that this question, like most of the others which regard our duties in life, is to be determined by our station in it. Private men may be wholly neutral and entirely innocent; but they who are legally invested with public trust, or stand on the high ground of rank and dignity, which is trust implied, can hardly in any case remain indifferent without the certainty of sinking into insignificance; and thereby in effect deserting that post in which, with

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the fullest authority and for the wisest purposes, the laws and institutions of their country have fixed them. However, if it be the office of those who are thus circumstanced to take a decided part, it is no less their duty that it should be a sober one. ought to be circumscribed by the same laws of decorum, and balanced by the same temper, which bound and regulate all the virtues. In a word, we ought to act in party with all the moderation which does not absolutely enervate that vigour, and quench that fervency of spirit, without which the best wishes for the public good must evaporate in empty speculation. Obser. on Pres. State of Nation.

Men thinking freely will, in particular instances, think differently. But still, as the greater part of the measures which arise in the course of public business are related to, or dependent on, some great, leading, general principles in government, a man must be peculiarly unfortunate in the choice of his

political company if he does not agree with them at least nine times in ten.-Thoughts on Pres. Discontents.

Party is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.-Thoughts on Pres. Discontents.

Every profession, not excepting the glorious one of a soldier or the sacred one of a priest, is liable to its own particular vices; which, however, form no argument against those ways of life; nor are the vices themselves inevitable to every individual in those professions. Of such a nature are connections in politics; essentially necessary for the full performance of our public duty, accidentally liable to degenerate into faction. Commonwealths are made of families, free commonwealths of parties also; and we may

as well affirm that our natural regards and

ties of blood tend inevitably to make men bad citizens, as that the bonds of our party weaken those by which we are held to our country. Thoughts on Pres. Discontents.

They believed that no men could act with effect who did not act in concert; that no men could act in concert who did not act with confidence; that no men could act with confidence who were not bound together by common opinions, common affections, and common interests.-Thoughts on Pres. Dis

contents.

In order to throw an odium on political connection, these politicians suppose it a necessary incident to it, that you are blindly to follow the opinions of your party when in direct opposition to your own clear ideas; a degree of servitude that no worthy man could bear the thought of submitting to.Thoughts on Pres. Discontents.

LEADERS OF PARTIES OFTEN LED BY GO-BETWEENS AND OUTSIDERS.

As to leaders in parties, nothing is more common than to see them blindly led. The world is governed by go-betweens.

There is in all parties, between the principal leaders in Parliament and the lowest followers out of doors, a middle sort of men ; a sort of equestrian order who, by the spirit of that middle situation, are the fittest for preventing things from running to excess. But indecision, though a vice of a totally different character, is the natural accomplice of violence. The irresolution and timidity of those who compose this middle order often prevent the effect of their controlling situation. The fear of differing with the authority of leaders on the one hand, and of contradicting the desires of the multitude on the other, induces them to give a careless and passive assent to measures in which they